The SpeedyBee M5 V1 is perhaps the best quadcopter I have ever owned - bought, built, or otherwise. The combination of a fantastic frame design, some solid electonics, and the DJI O3 system make it a complete winner.

But...

There's those props-in-view in that glorious video, and it really does spoil it rather. But then I saw that there was a SpeedyBee M5 V2 frame just released - elongated body and more dead-cat-y, so no props in view. And I really had to do the upgrade. Which has proven to be a very good thing to have done. The electronics transplanted easily and relatively cleanly, and so the new V2 build flies more or less the same as the old V1 build, that is to say very well indeed - just a bit stiffer perhaps, in that dead-cat way. And of course no props in view, so the video looks amazing! Score!

But...

Then I was left with this empty SpeedyBee V1 frame, and it's such a nice frame, and even though it has props-in-view, I do like that more compact body and true-x geometry - it throws around so very pleasingly. But I couldn't just build out the frame as before, that would be silly. So instead I spent some fruitful time with TinkerCAD and a set of callipers, and (more-or-less) reconstructed models of the various TPU parts, and printed them up in a lurid green. And then thought about it for a bit... and then thought "Eff it..." and ordered all the hardware to build it all out. Again.

I went with the same iFlight motors as for the first build, they seem to be hitting the 5S sweet spot for me, but instead of the Mamba stack I had chosen before, I went with a SpeedyBee stack - so it's SpeedyBee all the way this time. We'll see how that works out. I had acquired an adapter for the O3 Air Unit, so I could bolt that to the bottom plate over the heat sink, which tidied things up, and there was plenty of room for everything else. The only thing I had a bit of trouble with was finding a place for the CRSF RX - in the end I have the antenna lead running under the Air Unit, so I hope the heat isn't an issue. I guess I'll find out.

Overall, I'm pleased with how it's come out. The new livery is rather smart, differentiates well from my other SpeedyBee, and it's all quite neat and clean. And now I have three O3 machines, I really think that's enough.

And I also managed to sneak out at lunchtime today and put a couple of packs through the machine to see how it actually flies, and as I had hoped, and kind of expected in truth, it flies really very nicely indeed. Quick, agile, smooth, and stable. This is what I had hoped to see!

PoisonBee Maiden Flight